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DILLSBORO - Jackson County authorities are investigating whether a woman illegally used medication she got from a friend to abort a pregnancy, according to search warrant applications returned Monday.

The search warrant application indicates they are investigating under a North Carolina law related to “murder of an unborn child.”

A news release from the Jackson County Sheriff's Office says only that the office is investigating "the death of an unborn child and subsequent disposal of the child’s body in the Dillsboro community."

No charges have been filed.

It’s not clear from search warrants how far along the pregnancy was. North Carolina law prohibits most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and abortions should be performed by a licensed provider.

Investigators from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and State Bureau of Investigation spoke to a friend of the 38-year-old woman last week who told them that she talked with the woman between October and December of last year and the woman said she thought she was pregnant.

The friend told authorities that during the conversation, the woman said another friend had given her some pills “that are used to abort a pregnancy.” The woman told her friend “that the pills caused her vaginal bleeding.”

The friend saw the woman in early March and noticed she looked heavier. But at the time, the woman told her friend she did not "feel like she is pregnant."

According to the friend, she spoke to the woman again last week and the woman said she learned she was pregnant during a visit to the Jackson County health department in March.

Records cited in the search warrant application confirm that the woman had a positive pregnancy test on March 20.

Those records indicate the woman explained to the health care provider “that six weeks ago she had researched online ‘how to do abortion at home,'” and that someone had given her four misoprostol pills.

After the positive pregnancy test, the woman told her friend that her other friend had “called in a prescription” in the name of the woman’s boyfriend, according to the search warrant application. The woman said she used the medication, which caused stomach pain. The woman said “she was sitting on the toilet and a baby came out," according to the search warrant application.

This occurred at her boyfriend’s house. The friend who helped get the medication was at the house and “took the baby out of the toilet and cleaned it off," according to the search warrant application. The woman and her boyfriend then “buried the baby in his yard.”

Authorities obtained search warrants to search the residence and a truck last week.